DVD: Drumbassadors - Volume 1

Volume 1 shows René Creemers and Wim de Vries, both drummer and Dutchmen as "The Drumbassadors". Stylistically they combine European, African, and American grooves, sounds, and melodies in their own unique way. An essential requirement of their repertoire is that it must consist of 'songs'. Melody, no matter how simple, is key. Besides using different kinds of sticks René and Wim use their fingers and sing and rap words, with only one global goal in mind: to feature the drum kit as a musical instrument with unlimited possibilities. That's why this Drumbassadors DVD sounds like a global journey rather than a drum show-off. Their musical, creative and virtuoso approach to the drumset is clearly perceptible on this DVD, therefor Volume 1 is a must for all music lovers.

The Drumbassadors run the gamut, from left to right, from top to bottom, from loud to soft, from think to thin, from green to yellow, from round to square, from fast to slow, and ... they do it mith confidence!!

DVD: Modern drummer - Festival weekend 2003

Modern Drummer Festival 2003 featured an almost unprecedented cross-section of great drummers and percussionists! This Two-Disc-DVD set captures almost 6 hours of incredible performance footage from this amazing event.

Disc One - Saturday:
Mike Orris, winner Undiscovered Drummer, under 18, The Hip Pickles, The Nathaniel Townsley Trio, Matt Wilson and Band, Steve Smith and Vital Information, Mike Portnoy with Yellow Matter Custard end Dream Theater.

Disc Two - Sunday
Louis Santiago, Jr., winner Undiscovered Drummer, over 18, The Drumbassadors, Nick D'Virgilio, Antonio Sanchez, Airto Moreira, and Shawn Pelton with House of Diablo.

Video: A Matter Of Pride

"This video project was an opportunity to show my abilities, not especially as a drummer or composer but as a musician in general."

In 1994 René made his solo video presentation called 'A Matter Of Pride'. The video presents René as a solo performer fully displaying his 'own' creative way of playing. René's specials such as reversed rolls, echoing rimclicks and cowbells, crescendo cymbals and melodies on tomtoms, with the groove being played simultaneously, have been excellently filmed and portrayed on this hi-fi stereo video tape which in 1994 was chosen as the best drum video of that year by the readers of the Dutch Drummagazine Slagwerkkrant.

The video contains two computer arranged songs as well as a twelve-minute drum solo.

Running time: 23 minutes.

Book: Drummer's inspiration

By now René shows teaching experience which he has gained for over ten years as a regular lecturer at the Arnhem Music Academy (Holland) and as a visiting lecturer at the Music Academies of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Cologne as well as at the Drummers Institute (Düsseldorf) and at the LAMA (Los Angeles).

Therefore it was about time to publish in book form the study concepts he developed himself and so far had only been distributed by means of copies. Together with co-writer and initiator Andy Gillmann (Germany) René wrote this book which aims at providing the advanced drummer with new inspiration to discover and develop 'own grooves'. The study concepts are based on the (further) development of co-ordination, instrumentation and interpretation. The various chapters deal with binary and ternary practice systems for Grooves and Fills. The CD supplied with the book contains a great number of listening examples as well as four play-along songs and two drum duets.